Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Environment

Let's start by setting up our CRM environment. We will be using the online version of CRM 2015, since the online version provides one-month free trial access. By doing this, you will not need to purchase any license to learn CRM.

Note − Since Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a growing product, it is possible that by the time you are learning this, you will have a newer version of the product. In that case, the application may not look exactly as you would see in the screenshots of this tutorial. However, the core concepts of the product remain the same. The look-and-feel and the navigation of the product may change, however, in most of the cases you will be able to easily navigate and locate the required options.

Setting Up Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Account

Step 1 − Navigate to the following URL −

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/home

In case you do not see the options of Trial version via this link in future, just try searching "Microsoft Dynamics CRM Free Trial" on Google.

Step 2 − Click the Try it free button. This will start a 3-step registration process as shown in the following screenshot. In Step 1 of 3-step registration, fill in the mandatory details such as name, email, and language.

Step 3 − Click the Try it free button. This will start a 3-step registration process as shown in the following screenshot. In Step 1 of 3-step registration, fill in the mandatory details such as name, email, and language.

Step 4 − In Step 3 of 3-step registration, Microsoft will validate the mobile number that you have specified. For this, you can provide your mobile number and click Text me. It will then send an OTP to your mobile using which you will be able to proceed further with the setup.

Step 5 − Your Office 365 user ID will be created. You can save this user ID information for later access.

After setting up the account, it will now open your CRM Dashboard which will look something like the following.

Just to emphasize again, the screenshots above may change with a future version, however setting up the environment will be a pretty simple process.

Downloading CRM SDK

The Software Development Kit (SDK) of Microsoft Dynamics CRM contains important code samples including server side code, client side code, extensions, plugins, web services, workflows, security model, etc. Basically, the SDK contains every development resource that you would need to get started with CRM. Whether you are planning to set up a new plugin project or setting up a web services project for CRM, the SDK provides the basic architecture and examples ranging from simple to advanced level to help you kick-off. We will now look at the steps to download and install the SDK.

Step 1 − Every version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes with its own SDK version. The best way to get the correct SDK version would be to search on Google for your respective CRM version. For example, if your CRM version is 2015, then try searching for "Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 SDK".

Step 2 − Once downloaded, run the exe setup. Click Continue.

Step 3 − It will ask you to choose the location where the SDK should be extracted. Select any appropriate location where you would like to keep the reference SDK.

Step 4 − Open the folder where you had extracted. You can access all the SDK content from here.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have set up our environment by creating a CRM Online account. We then downloaded the CRM SDK, which will be used in the subsequent chapters of this tutorial. Make sure to note down the credentials with which you have set up the account, since you will need these credentials the next time you login.